Tagged: texas rangers

First, let me say that I speak only for myself, I will not pretend to have some connection into the thinking of other Ranger fans.

Thank you. In your time here, you’ve become one of greatest Ranger players in club history. Your consistency, cooperation, acceptance and professionalism is the stuff of true role models. In spite of all that the club has asked you to sacrifice, you’ve done it in the hopes of improving the team and improve it has. The success that we as fans enjoy, is due in no small part to your willingness to do whatever it took.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry that more fans haven’t recognized how truly important you are in the lexicon of North Texas sports. You’re not the sort of player to toot your own horn and shout “Look at me!”…you’ve simply spent the last decade being what several in your clubhouse call “the glue.” Sure, you’ve put up All-Star worthy numbers more frequently than you’ve actually been able to represent in the Summer Classic, but from my perspective at least, it appears that team goals were always foremost in mind. When people think of the Cowboys, there are several names that come to mind, with the Mavericks it’s likely to be Dirk. For me, though I’ve been a fan of the Rangers since about 1977, when I think of this team I will choose to include the name of Michael Young among the list of my all-time favorite players. You’re a “gamer” and “a grinder” and to me you represent all that is good about the game of baseball.

You once went out of your way to meet my father-in-law, Dave Gorrie, who had coached at UC Santa Barbara and is in the Gauchos Hall of Fame. Shortly before the meeting, he’d been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s so we couldn’t know for sure if his memory of you attending one or more of his clinics after moving to Pepperdine were true or simply something he wanted to believe. You told him that you remembered attending those clinics, which made his day. I don’t know if you actually did or if you just went along with it, but on that day you became my favorite Ranger. Since that time, regardless of how dodgy my father-in-law’s memory has become, when he sees your name on TV or hears it Chuck Morgan announce it at Rangers Ballpark, he says, “Ol’ Michael Young! He’s a good guy.”

You truly are one of the Good Guys. If the trade to Philadelphia happens, in spite of my general dislike of that city’s teams…the Phillies will gain a viewer. If you decide to stay, I will not hold it against you because I believe that the sacrifices you’ve made over your tenure here give you unique rights to the success that the team is having and a chance to win a World Series title here.